Subject 13's Butler: Seeing Is Believing
by AoUsagi
Summary: Sophie Lancaster encounters the strangest of the strange while out on a field assignment with the unruly, infamous Grell Sutcliff. Is the rookie Dispatch officer is about to reveal perhaps one too many secrets? A Subject 13's Butler side-story written for xXFairyFictionXx


-:- **Subject 13's Butler:** -:-

_Seeing Is Believing_  
.:_A Subject 13's Butler side-story dedicated to __**xXFairyFictionXx**__:._

"Hey there, newbie."

For a moment, Sophie Lancaster didn't realize that she was the one being talked to. It was only when someone prodded her in the shoulder with a long, manicured fingernail that she nearly jumped in her seat and spun a hundred and eighty degrees around to see who exactly was after her attention.

"W-who, me?" she started, looking up to see a tall, slender man standing over her; he had incredibly feminine features, piercing green eyes framed by red glasses, and long red hair that had been let fall loosely down his back.

"Yes, you." He sounded peeved – that was never good. "You're Lancaster, right?"

"Ye-yessir." Sophie stood quickly and straightened her black blazer, before giving the older agent a salute. "At your service. Sir."

After a raised eyebrow and a slightly uncomfortable silence, the redhead sighed and turned away, gesturing for her to follow. "Come with me. Will says it's time you had a run-through in fieldwork. If you're to be working here in management, you've gotta be prepared to be called away from your desk on an emergency basis in case there's no one else to do it instead." He said lazily as he sauntered off, and Sophie had to take a second to realize that she would need her badge and handgun – sweeping the items off her desk and hastily buckling them around her waist, she was nearly tripping over herself to catch up to him.

"Oh, yes sir! Coming, sir!"

There was another almost concerned look from the agent, thrown haphazardly over his shoulder as he reached the elevator. "Cut that 'sir' stuff out, kid. You're giving me the creeps."

"Oh, uh – y-yes si- I mean, yes." Already her heart was pounding with excitement; Sophie was still coming to terms with the fact that she'd made it through the academy training and into the Dispatch work force. Today was her third day of induction and training in the Dispatch system, and though she'd already managed to memorize most of the rules and regulations, the part she was finding most challenging was the socializing with the other agents.

It wasn't as if she wasn't good with people; she had plenty of friends. But here, she just felt…out of place, almost. The other agents looked down on her energetic demeanour as childish behaviour. Especially the one her current superior, who she followed dutifully into the lift, called 'Will' so casually. The dark haired man terrified her – every time she said something out of turn, there was a hard slash to his brows of irritation. Cold glares sent her way.

But she couldn't help herself. Not really.

"So…where are we going, sir?" she asked, trying to strike up conversation with Agent Sutcliff, who was leaning one elbow against the side of the elevator, staring boredly into space, but turned to look over at her when she spoke. "Oops, sorry sir – uh, sorry."

Despite her nervous giggle, Sutcliff didn't chide her. "Just calm down. We're doing a round out of knocking on doors asking for information. There'll be no shake downs or excitement; so cool your socks, missy."

Sophie forced herself to take a long, deep breath, hold it for a few seconds, and then let it out slowly. A technique her mother had taught her to help calm her nerves.

"Okay. So, what are we after?"

"Information. On people connected to this case." He produced a folder from under his arm and handed it over to her; inside were several papers with people's profiles, the mission statement titled _Phantomhive_.

"Phantomhive? Wasn't he the wealthy businessman with a huge social reputation but a supposedly shady background?"

"Yeah. His son went missing, supposedly died, three years ago – but things have changed, and it's been discovered the kid is still alive; our job now is to locate him, bring him in and process him."

"Process?"

"Rehabilitate him if necessary." Agent Sutcliff said airily. "It's rumoured the kid has his head screwed with in some sort of bizarre underground experiments, but nothing has been confirmed. That's why, if we get our hands on him, he can confirm whether or not what happened to him was true; expose what actually happened to him and we can finally take down the Karnstein Hospital for illegal drug experimentation."

"I see." Sophie rocked back and forth on her heels; she flipped through the pages and found the child's profile picture. There were two – one of the boy when he was about ten years old, and a blurred, hurriedly snapped photograph taken more recently. The latter was a spur-of-the-moment shot, taken at a sighting of the boy, who now looked gaunt and guarded in comparison to the happy, smiling child in the first photo. "Does he…and whoever he's with…know that we only want to help?"

Sutcliff groaned and rolled his eyes.

"It's not about helping them, really; it's about regaining our standing by proving that we can handle such a complex case. Yes, some of us are in this because we want to help the kid. The kid needs help. But our main goal is to overturn the Karnstein; we've had suspicions against them for years, but no real evidence that they were doing anything wrong. This kid could turn that around for us; whatever he knows could be vital in proving the Karnstein's guilt." He explained as the elevator dinged and the door slid open to reveal the lit, underground car park. "But our methods of processing are long and arduous. There's paperwork and tests and so forth to be done, and it takes forever. And because he could be called a potential hazard, the kid would be locked up somewhere whilst it was all happening. The people who rescued him from that hell hole see our processing as just putting the kid through more unnecessary stress and hell."

"Because we have to use force to subdue them, right?" the gun in the holster at her hip suddenly seemed to weigh her down with every step as she followed Grell Sutcliff to the sleek black sedan he was making a beeline for. He unlocked it and it's lights flashed as he opened the door to climb inside. She slid into the seat next to him, and he sighed.

"Yes. We have to abide by the rules; if that means we have to be heartless arseholes, so be it." He grunted, slamming his door closed behind him, now quite clearly tired of the conversation. "Put your seatbelt on, newbie."

**-:-**

The district they were searching was a fairly quiet one. Tenement buildings rose up on either side, some of them looking a bit worse for wear, most of them standing silently, as if observing the two agents with omnipotent superiority.

"Some of these places aren't even used anymore," Sophie said as she rubbed a spot on a grimy shopfront window to peer inside. "Yeesh."

Grell sighed as he strode past her, a notepad in hand. "Come on, newbie – quit dawdling." He consulted the directions on the notepad again, before gesturing for her to follow him down an alleyway. Trotting along after him, Sophie found herself gazing around at the high concrete walls – at eye-height, she noticed several scuff marks.

"H-hey, what're these?" she took a closer look, but Sutcliff merely shrugged.

"There was a scuffle down here; the Phantomhive boy was seen with some Hospital thugs. He managed to get away from them, but now we have to follow the clues and try to find where he might have gone. Urgh – oh, gross."

Sophie's ears perked as her superior's voice rose to an almost girlish pitch; looking over, she saw Agent Sutcliff flicking something wet and rag-like off his shoe. It left a wet glisten on the black leather, and a damp patch on the decorative red suede of the shoe – she was fairly sure that those _weren't_ the right shoes according to regulations, but then again, in her short time at the Dispatch, she'd already heard plenty of stories about Grell Sutcliff's fashion sense.

"It's a dead end down here," she noted as the alleyway came to a rather abrupt stop, a tall brick wall rising up away from them. Grell snorted.

"I can see that, newbie – but look." He pointed off to her left, and she saw that there was a gap between the wall and the building on the left side of the alley; a gap only just big enough for a man of Grell's shoulder width to sidle through. "The kid escaped from this alley through here. Come on; there're more places to knock on for info on the other side."

Sophie nodded, and shone her pen-torch down the darkened passage; several rats took fright and scuttled away, and she thought she heard Agent Sutcliff groan in disgust at the trash that littered the passage drain, but when she looked over, his face was set grimly, without a trace of personal distaste present. She shimmied down the passageway after him, feeling the cold bricks brush and occasionally catch the fabric of her blazer at her back. Once on the other side, they both took a deep breath as the area around them opened up again, letting in more light from above.

"That's better," she sighed happily as she dusted herself off, and looked over to see Sutcliff already picking his way through the several piles of garbage bags and spilt litter – more rats and mice fled from beneath their feet as they picked their way through it, until finally they seemed to be through the worst of it. "Where do we start now?"

The older agent took a minute to scope out their surroundings properly, the now broader alleyway lined by the back doors of the buildings, whether they were tenement housing or ground floor shops. Then, with a sudden smirk, he turned to her.

"Well? You figure it out." He said, and Sophie swallowed hard. Examining the scene? Yes, that was definitely something she'd trained to do. Look for clues.

"Um, well…" she trailed off, starting to nose around the immediate area. "Uhh…"

She snuck a glance over at her superior, who was watching and waiting silently with his hands on his hips. Waiting for her to make a decision. See how she handled the situation.

"The…uh…what we're looking for, is where the child would most likely have gone," she started awkwardly, painfully aware of how blatantly obvious she sounded. "He could have continued down the alley, or he might have, you know, stopped and knocked at any of these places to ask for help."

"So what do we do?" Grell folded his arms, his eyes cool and his smirk almost slightly amused as he prodded her for further investigating.

"Um…" Sophie cast one last look around. "We should knock somewhere. See if anyone heard or saw anything."

"Not bad, newbie, not bad." The redheaded agent nodded, and chose a door closest to him. He rapped on the hard wood with his knuckles, and waited for an answer. With the pressure off, Sophie let her shoulders sag and she sighed with relief – she let her guard down, and nearly jumped in fright when the door Grell had knocked upon suddenly swung open.

"C'n I help you, lovelies?"

Even Grell seemed taken aback at the strange man's appearance. He was very tall; taller than Grell, and had long, wispy silver hair flowing in a long curtain like drape down his back, long bangs of it falling down his shoulders, an over-long fringe hiding his eyes, despite the fact he was wearing wire-framed glasses.

"We're here on business," Grell rallied quickly and cleared his throat. "Mind if we come in and ask you a few questions?"

There was a pause that faded the odd man's smile for a moment, but then he nodded and held open the door; Grell nodded to Sophie, and she stepped into the darkened building after him.

Once inside, she saw it wasn't actually completely dark; the shopfront curtains had been drawn to keep out the immediate sunlight, which dimmed the large yet rather disturbingly quiet shop somewhat, but the whole place was lit by wall-mounted lights that glowed softly and illuminated the inner workshop of the store. It was like a strange, darkened gallery of gowns and outfits; decorated in lace and ruffles and the air was, contrary to what Sophie had expected – surprisingly clean and fresh. Like someone had thrown open several windows and let in the first breaths of morning air. She'd expected a thick layer of dust on everything.

"What _is_ this place?" she murmured, and the odd man sidled past the two of them, moving over to a side room and tactfully pulling the door of it closed.

"'Tis me parlour, m'lady," he replied with a smile, beckoning them away and towards the front area of the shop. "Care to step out here so we might talk?"

Sophie was about to follow, when Grell's gloved fingers caught her sleeve at the elbow and tugged her back; looking over her shoulder, she saw him squinting at the door the man had shut, scrutinizing it.

"What's in here, Kooky?" the redheaded agent jerked a thumb over at it, but the strange man skittered back over to it, his long silvery hair flying as he tried to usher them away from it.

"Nothing, nothing! Merely a storeroom for me cloths!"

Grell lifted an eyebrow.

"Really?"

"Sir?" Sophie's hand went to her holster – she'd picked on the curious man's vibe; he was definitely hiding something.

"Check it out, newbie." her superior nodded in approval, and when the man went to block her, she ducked under his arm and moved straight to the door. In one single swift movement, she'd drawn her handgun in one hand and grasped the doorhandle in the other. She twisted the handle slowly, peeking through a crack before throwing it wide open and rushing inside. Sophie thought she heard Agent Sutcliff sigh something about overdramatization, but she was too stunned by what she found her eyes had seen beyond the door.

"..."

It was like a deer caught in the headlights. Wide-eyed, ready to spring into action, but just far too surprised to register any brain activity.

He was a tall man, Sophie could see that; nearly six foot, most likely. He had glossy black hair that hung in bangs around his face. A finely chiselled jawline. Strong shoulders. A smooth, porcelain chest. Abs to die for. Soft skin at his naval, possibly the softest part of his fine, lean body. Long fingers and slender hands that gripped a pair of jeans that were tugged up around his waist, just waiting to be zipped and buttoned. Beautiful, carved legs that any man who was any man would _kill_ to have. There was dark fabric pooling at his feet; material ready to be made into an outfit that would have every woman swooning at his feet, no doubt.

Sophie blinked. She finally realized she'd been gazing at the half-naked man for nearly a minute when Agent Sutcliff entered the room as well, and almost immediately fainted.

"_WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?!_"

The question erupted from both of them – the dark haired man in front of her as he hastily zipped and buttoned his jeans, and Agent Sutcliff behind her, who seemed to be having trouble controlling his..._flambouyant_ urges. Sophie whirled from one to the other, trying to keep her sights trained on the man with the ridiculously good-looking body.

"N-newbie! Lower your weapon! That's an order!" Grell stammered out, and before she could object his hand on her shoulder was dragging her back, almost throwing her back into the doorframe as he stepped in front of her. The strange man peered in next to her, chuckling at the sight.

"Oh my, whoopsie," he giggled, and Sophie straightened herself.

"What in God's name do you mean, '_whoopsie_'?!" she demanded, and he merely laughed harder.

"I did tell ye – nothin' t'see innere – at least, nothin' any _maid_ should be seein'!" he cracked up all over again, obviously off his nut. Sophie swallowed back the blush that was hot on her cheeks and turned back to the situation at hand.

"I'm _not_ a maid," she ground out. "S-sir, who is this man?"

Sutcliff and the bare-chested stranger seemed to be looked in some sort of trance – broken only by her words. "H-huh? This guy?" Grell rallied quickly. "Oh, pfft – he's a no one. Never seen him before. G-get out, you – we're on business here." he whipped out his badge, and the stranger scrambled to pick up a discarded t-shirt.

"I'm sorry, sir – please forgive me," he responded quickly as he stuffed his bare feet into a pair of shoes, before shouldering past them and out into the shop, where he nodded an apologetic thanks to the weird silver-haired shop owner. Then, he disappeared out the back door into the alley where they'd just entered from.

Sophie turned back to Agent Sutcliff. He was already making his way past her and began firing questions off at the shop owner without a backwards glance at the storeroom where the unusual confrontation had just taken place, and all Sophie could do was tag along and listen.

**-:-**

The investigation was finished. At least for the day, at any rate. The intense boredom from the questioning was almost enough to send Sophie batty, and she'd had to keep herself entertained with thoughts of the bizarre encounter from earlier. There had been something not quite right about the way Grell had spaced out – the way he and the stranger had stared at each other. It was almost like they were having a silent conversation, spoken entirely through the flickers of their eyelashes, the movements of their gazes. The more she thought about it, the more it confused her. The stranger...he seemed so familiar. Where could she have seen him before?

"You're thinking again, newbie – there's steam coming outta your ears," Sutcliff nudged her as they sidled their way back through the narrow connecting alley and into the one where they'd begun their investigation from.

"Hmm? Oh, no. Sorry." she mumbled, trailing along behind him like a deflated puppy.

They made it back to the car without incident, finally emerging back into daylight – the sun was starting to move into the late afternoon, sending streaks of orange across the sky among the clouds. They'd been gone for nearly three hours; crikey.

As they headed back towards the livelier side of the city, Sophie gazed out the window with the case file in her lap, idling fiddling with the corner of the folder. The stiff card had become soft and fibres were loosening between her fingers.

"Ah, shit!"

Agent Sutcliff hit the brake and swerved suddenly as an idiot driver on the freeway lane next to them accelerated ahead to pull into the lane right in front of them, giving them little reaction time. Sophie yelped and Grell swore black and blue, profanities running from his purse lips like spit.

"...stupid asshats got their damn license out of a fucking _cereal box_ or something!" he cursed, honking his horn the driver now ahead of them. "Urgh. Pick up the papers, newbie."

Sophie was still trying to calm her racing pulse as she registered what Agent Sutcliff had said – indeed, there were papers from the Phantomhive case file had spilt everywhere over her lap and on the floor of the car at her feet when Sutcliff had tried to prevent them from both getting killed.

"O-oh, r-r-right."

"Yeesh, calm down, kid, you're fine," Grell rolled his eyes. "You went through the defensive driving course, didn't you?"

Sophie paused as she was scooping up the papers. "N-no, that's not one of the courses I did..."

"Urgh. Right. I know what I'm recommending you for, girlie," Sutcliff said as he blew out a long breath. "But yeah, it's kinda scary when dick drivers do stupid things like that, I know."

She tried to hide the small smile, thankful that he was acknowledging the fact that she had been the only one who had been petrified in the instant when their bonnet and the driver's bumper had almost collided and dragged them clean off the road with the inertia. She finished trying to wrestle the papers back into her lap, and started to sort them back into some sort of co-hesive order.

"W-wait..."

Grell looked over. "Hmm?"

One of the papers that Sophie had lifted out of the pile was another profile; this one of the infamous doctor, Sebastian Michaelis. He looked...

"Oopsie." Suddenly, the entire stack of papers had been yanked from her hands and thrown over the back seat – Grell didn't even look away from the road as he tore them from her hands.

"Hey!" she cried.

"What?"

"I was reading that!"

"Didn't look like it, kid," Sutcliff shot her a lazy look, looking completely nonchalant about it. "Looked like you were slacking off when I'd told you to do something."

"I _was_ doing what you told me to!"

"You were slacking off."

"No I was not!"

"Quit yelling at me, newbie – it won't look good on my report. I'm going to have to put you down as noisy, nosy, unco-operative - "

Fear gripped Sophie and in a split second she went from angry and indignant to terrified. She couldn't lose her place at the Dispatch – not this early in the induction program.

"W-wait! No no no no no! I'm sorry sir, please, I'm sorry!" she babbled urgently, over-eager to right any wrongs. Agent Sutcliff waved her off lightly.

"Siddown, kid, you're fine." he grumbled, and from then on, they lapsed into a slightly awkward, uncomfortable silence.

**-:-**

Sophie Lancaster only remembered exactly why Agent Sutcliff had distracted her from the paperwork with threats of a bad report when they'd arrived back at the London Dispatch branch. Grell parked in one of the outside carparks, and moved quickly to gather up the papers from the file himself. They headed towards the main entrance side-by-side, and it was only when Sophie caught sight of stray papers tucked in at odd angles into the file did she remember.

"A-agent Sutcliff..."

She stopped, unsure of herself as to how to continue, and Grell turned back to face her. He looked tired, bored of the case, but she could see the tension in his shoulders – he knew what was coming.

"Just spit it out, kid."

Sophie fumbled over her words, trying to get them out right and failing. "I just...well, you see – I don't want to...uh, what I mean is..."

Sutfcliff sighed.

"I don't have all day, newbie."

"I...Was that, or was that not Sebastian Michaelis that we ran into at that dress-makers shop?" Sophie managed to blurt out. "I-I don't wish to come off as insubordinate, sir. I don't want to sound like I'm questioning your authority. It's just that...well...if it was him..."

"We'd be breaking every rule in the book?"

"...yes. Sir."

She could feel his piercing green gaze watching her, but she couldn't bring herself to match it. Instead, she found her eyes at her own feet, finding herself waiting to hear his condemnation of her employment for being a nosy brat. She'd heard the stories of how the infamous Grell Sutcliff was renown for being a flambouyant, outrageous piece of work, and it had become a common topic of conversation amidst the other new officers that he had a tendency to brag or over exaggerate a persons worth or worthlessness. He'd had a good many people turned away from future's in the field because of his connections and partnerships to William T Spears.

But instead of Agent Sutcliff going off his head, he merely sighed, and then looked away as she finally brought her gaze up to him.

"You're right, rookie. I made a big mistake out there today." He said quietly. "Can you tell me what it was?"

Grell looked over to her with a small smile, a tired smile. Sophie swallowed hard. She had to tread carefully.

"We...uh...allowed a vital asset to the case go...?"

Grell's smiled widened a little, but not broad enough to show his shark-like teeth.

"No, kid. I broke a promise I made myself. I wouldn't let Will down, not in front of anybody." His voice was surprisingly downhearted. "No one but me should have to see the shameful things I allow to slip past me."

Sophie blinked – it was pretty much the opposite of what she'd expected, but Agent Sutcliff said no more, merely turned and started to walk away again, folder tucked beneath his arm. After a moment, she trotted after him to catch up across the carpark bathed in the late afternoon light and long shadows.

"A-Agent Sutcliff, s-sir?"

"Yeah?" His head was hung low as he glanced sideways at her when she'd caught up and slowed to a walk alongside him.

"What will we put in the report of our investigation?"

"We don't mention Michaelis in the report."

"Why not?"

Grell chuckled. "Because Will would _kill_ me."

"That's it?"

"No," Sutcliff conceded wearily. "But as a newbie it's your job to keep your mouth quiet and let the expert handle the situation. Speak only when spoken to."

Sophie sighed. "Is this like the thing we were talking about earlier? Like, we're only in on this case to regain dignity and honour? Not for the sake of the Phantomhive boy?"

After a moment of silence, Grell let out a long, drawn breath. He stopped, and Sophie pulled up next to him. To her surprise, he patted her on the head, ruffling the top of her hair that she'd worked so hard to pull the long locks into a decent bun that morning. There was a sad smile on his face, though, and no sign of mirth.

"Some of us are in on this for the regaining of our standing. Some are caught up in this to save their own skins. Some are really there for the Phantomhive kid, and all the people who have to be on the run with him to stay free."

"May I ask you something, sir?"

"Mm?"

Sophie mustered enough courage to look Grell in the eye. "Which one are you?"

Grell considered it for a moment, smirked to himself as if he were enjoying an inner joke with himself, and then patted her head once more before beginning to walk again.

"I'll handle the report, kid. Come inside, get your desk tidy and then sign out for the evening. I'll see you in the office bright and twirly tomorrow morning."

Sophie was left standing there staring after him.

"B-But which one are you, sir?!" she called after him, and she could hear his almost bitter laugh swirling away on the breeze that swept through the parking lot.

"Whichever one you want me to be, kid. Just make sure you know which one you are. That's what's important."

**-:-**

* * *

_**AfterNote:**_

There you go, xXFairyFictionXx! I hope you enjoyed it and i'm so TERRIBLY sorry it's taken me so long to get it done! Only one more to go now ^^

urgh! Quick update: i've been busy like CRAZY guys, which is why i've been horribly slow at updating Subject 13's Butler recently. I've moved away from home for a time to live in the city for university, i've STARTED at university, and i've also started learning Parkour and gotten way too into roleplaying and designing cosplays with one of my best friends. All in all, it's been super busy and I hope you guys are all doing okay – I have some free time tomorrow after my uni homework is done, so i'll try and get _**Cielshadow17**_'s ficlet written up then – after that, I have the weekend to finish writing Chapter 45 of _Subject 13's Butler_!

Hi ho, away~!

- Mercy


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